A DC motor has excellent starting torque (much greater than an AC motor). This high starting torque is ideal to overcome the initial friction of getting the gate moving and accelerating the gate up to speed.

The speed of a DC motor is easily controlled and thus a gate can be softly ramped up to speed and slowed down as required (see the D5 motor).

The DC motor is more efficient than comparable AC motors thus virtually eliminating shutdown due to over - temperature.
With a battery the gate can be operated a limited number of times in total power failure conditions (actual number of operations depends on the capacity of the battery).

In areas of no AC mains power a solar panel can be used to charge a battery. Typical applications are farming communities, or high security sites located on mountainous areas, etc.

How many times can I open my D5-Evo / D5 / D3 operated gate with mains power failure?

This depends on the weight of the gate, the rolling friction (or pull force applied), the length of the gate and the size of the battery. As a rough guide a typical gate of approximately 4-5 metres, on round rail with good quality wheel bearings, using a 7A/H battery, will open and close approximately 15 times

When the gate closes it seems to hit an obstruction and then re-open. This sometimes happens 3 times in a row.

Something is either restricting the gate when it reaches the closed position activating the sensitivity mechanism to reopen the gate or the sensitivity is just set too high.

Put the gate into manual mode and push the gate closed but push the gate very slowly. You want to try detecting any changes in the resistance to the movement of the gate when it reaches the closed position. If you notice that you must push harder at the end or something is catching the gate, try and identify what it is and resolve this.

Check that when the gate closes, it moves smoothly into its closed catch bracket – make sure that even if the gate wobbles slightly from side to side it is not going to hit the catch. Once again if this is the case try and open up the catch.

Lastly reduce the sensitivity of the operator. Visit our website - CENTSYS Systems. Read from page 27 of the manual. You must programme at MENU LEVEL 7 – 3 flashes of the STATUS LED. (this will give you LOW sensitivity)

P.C.M. is an abbreviation for Positive Close Mode. It is a mode which can be selected to close a gate up against an end stop. In this mode the gate will slow down normally; then continue to run until it strikes a physical end stop. If there is no end stop the gate will continue to run for approximately 350mm and then stop. Its main use is to ensure that a gate is always closed to an exact position so that, say, a magnetic limit switch will make reliable contact.
WARNING: Care must be exercised in this mode because the gate will not reverse from the instant that the gate starts its slow down ramp till it is fully closed. Thus any object in this region of the gate travel will be trapped. It is highly recommended that infra red beams are fitted if this mode is selected. The IR beams are effective up to the point that the gate stops.

PIRAC is an abbreviation for Passive Infra Red Auto Close. It is a mode of operation which will cause the gate to close immediately the infra red beam is cleared after an object has entered the beam. Any trigger to the control card will cause a closed or closing gate to open. If already opening, the trigger signal is ignored. If the gate is opened, but the beam is not broken, then the gate will immediately start closing when it reaches its programmed, fully open end point. It is thus a high security mode.

This is a mode of operation which is used typically in townhouse complexes or business sites where there could be many people all trying to control the operation of a gate at the same time. With Condominium mode selected all trigger inputs will have the effect of opening a closed, or closing gate, but will be ignored if the gate which is already opening. This implies that it is not possible to give a trigger to close a gate which is open. The controller automatically installs "auto close" and it is the auto close timer which causes the gate to close. The auto close time can be adjusted from 1 to 255 seconds. (In this mode it is not possible to make use of the auto close override feature of the CENTSYS controllers). Any trigger signals given during the period when the gate is in fully open position have the effect of restarting the auto close countdown.

Can a battery larger than 7A/H be used on CENTSYS battery operated gate systems?

Yes. The larger the battery the more times the gate can be operated when a power failure occurs. For high volume applications it may be necessary to change the battery charger to ensure that the total energy into the battery exceeds the total energy drawn out of the battery over a long period of time.

Are the green IRB and LCK LED's lit? If not, determine why. When the gate is triggered, does the red TRG led light? If not, determine why. Are any of the red diagnostic LED's permanently on? If so, determine why.